THE PLAGUE LOCUST OF NATAL. 171 



THE .PLAGUE LOCUST OF NATAL. 



(Acridium purpuriferum Walk.) 

 By Claude Fuller, PletermaritzMirg, Natal. 



So far as economic entomology is concerned the most important 

 and interesting work done in this colony is the annual campaign 

 against the invading plague locust (Acridium purpuriferum). 

 Briefly, this locust invaded Natal about thirty-six years ago; the 

 exact date is somewhat legendary, for we are still a very young 

 colony, and our official records were all burned some seven years ago. 

 The invading swarms did very little damage, laid no eggs, and dis- 

 appeared. Then, in 1894 there was an invasion again, and in 1895 

 and 1896 further and devastating invasions occurred, the locusts 

 swarming over the whole colony and depositing their eggs from the 

 littoral to the high veldt (5,000 feet altitude). The damage they did 

 was enormous, and the farmers and planters were in a hopeless posi- 

 tion. The rapidly undulating nature of this country, where plains 

 are absent and comparatively level areas seldom more than 50 to 100 

 acres in extent, and exceptional at that, precluded the use of your well- 

 known hopperdozers and rollers. The government of the day paid 

 out vast sums for eggs, bands of natives were organized, and the 

 young locusts were thrashed with wire flails, made up like the old 

 pedagogue's birch. No outside advice or help, so far as I can ascertain, 

 was sought, and the people worked in the dark and unavailingly. 

 I am told that a dead locust was sent to an eminent naturalist of 

 Europe with a request that he should say how such insects could be 

 readily killed. He seriously replied, it is said, that such a desired 

 effect might be most easily procured by pulling off their heads. For 

 the veracity of the story I can not vouch. 



The next move forward was the discovery (I use the word ad- 

 visedly) of the efficiency of arsenic solution sweetened with treacle 

 as a destructive agent, by Messrs. Anthony and Gilbert Wilkinson, 

 sugar-cane planters. By this time the locust trouble had become 

 rather a coast than an upland question, and the arsenic-soda solution 

 was immediately brought into use from north to south of the littoral. 

 This innovation of the Messrs. Wilkinson was recognized by Parlia- 

 ment, and the colony presented them with a handsome piece of plate 

 inscribed with the people's appreciation of their services. A mate- 

 rial consequence of the general application of arsenic solution was a 

 greatly increased demand for arsenic. Planters' orders for the poison 

 in one season amounted to 50 tons; and, curiously enough, the in- 

 creased demand from Natal, for a time, put up the price on the Lon- 

 don market. 



